Billy Riley v. E. McDaniel

I. Introduction

Billy Ray Riley was convicted of the robbery and murder of Albert “Ramrod” Bollin in 1990. With respect to the robbery conviction, Riley was adjudicated to be an habitual criminal and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. With respect to the murder conviction, Riley was sentenced to death. Only the murder conviction and death sentence are challenged here.

Riley raises a number of ineffective assistance of trial counsel and instructional error challenges to his murder conviction and sentence. As pertinent here, Riley argues that one of the guilt-phase instructions given at his trial violated his due process rights by advising the jury that if it finds “premeditation,” it has necessarily found “deliberation.” This instruction, Riley contends, relieved the state of its burden to prove every element of the offense. The district court found that the state trial court had committed, constitutional error in giving this instruction, but concluded that the error was harmless.

We agree that constitutional error occurred, but conclude that Riley was prejudiced as a result, and that his murder conviction and death sentence are therefore invalid. The…